A common method for manufacturing a panty garment involves first knitting a tubular blank. Then, leg openings are cut out on opposite sides of the tube. The tube is slit lengthwise above and below one of the leg opening cut-outs to provide a flat blank in which the left side and right side lengthwise are mirror images. The top and bottom of the blank are folded over onto each other and the sides are sewn together to form a typical panty garment having a waist and two leg openings.
This approach to manufacture of panty garments involves knitting a tubular blank on a circular knitting machine having a knitting cylinder with a particular diameter. The knitted tubular blank has a width in its relaxed, unstretched state equivalent to the diameter of the knitting cylinder. Slitting the knitted tube provides a blank having a width that is twice the diameter of the circular tube. Thus, the girth of a panty garment made from such a blank is limited to essentially twice the diameter of the circular knitting machine cylinder from which the tubular blank is made.
Tubular blanks for making panty garments can be knit on circular knitting machines designed for knitting pantyhose. It is desirable to manufacture panty garments from circular knitting machines designed for knitting pantyhose because such manufacture permits utilization of knitting machines that are underutilized or are not in use due to decreased demand for pantyhose. Knitting cylinders on circular knitting machines for knitting pantyhose are relatively small, the cylinders being sized to provide a tubular blank for one leg of a pantyhose garment. As a result, a tubular blank knit on a circular knitting machine designed for knitting pantyhose does not have a diameter large enough to make larger size panty garments.
Thus, there is a need to provide a larger size panty garment made from a circular knitting machine designed for knitting pantyhose. There is also a need for methods for making a larger size panty garment made from a circular knitting machine designed for knitting pantyhose.